


No Soy un Ángel, no Caí del Cielo

by setaxis



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Character Death, Fae & Fairies, Gore, Insanity, Kinda, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-23
Updated: 2015-03-23
Packaged: 2018-03-19 07:43:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3601929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/setaxis/pseuds/setaxis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fantasy au: Lu Han has always wanted to touch the sky, but some dreams are better off left that way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No Soy un Ángel, no Caí del Cielo

**Warnings:**  
Insanity, gore, violence, mental disorders, character death  


  


  


  


  


  


  


  


  


  


  


  
  
The tallest tree in the forest is old. Some of the old sprites like to tell stories to the young 'uns, try to scare them, but Lu Han knows the reality is this: it's just tree. Older and wiser than the rest, but just a tree. He's not complaining though. If the stories are what keep the other nymphs away from Lu Han's sanctuary, he may even start spreading them himself.  
  
  
  
  
There's a tree at the centre of the forest. They say it's as old as the forest itself and the sight of it fills Minseok with dread. It stands in a glade where nothing will grow. No flowers, no bushes, no grass. There's nothing but barren earth in almost a perfect circle around its base as if even the plants themselves are too frightened to get any closer.  
  
Its name is the Elder tree, and Minseok knows that within its withered and twisted bark rests something unspeakably evil.  
  
  
  
  
It's unusual for two wood sprites to be born in the same season so it seems inevitable that Minseok and Lu Han would become close. One hatched from an acorn, the other a sycamore seed, soon they became thick as thieves and are almost never seen apart.  
  
Everyone comments on their friendship as they grow up. Even if they hadn't hatched from the same seed sometimes Minseok feels like they are still twins, connected on some deeper level than can be understood. It feels like someone sharing your brain they think so alike.  
  
Except for one thing.  
  
Minseok is about as grounded as you can get and Lu Han loves the sky. Baekhyun likes to tease him and say it's because he was born from a seed with wings but Minseok doesn't think that's the reason why. For Lu Han the sky represents something far more than a place to fly - men have long since learnt to fly in their metal contraptions but Lu Han shows no interest in those. He only pays mild interest to the birds because they are allowed to touch the sky.  
  
Lu Han doesn't just want to touch the sky, he wants to own it.  
  
  
  
  
The majority of Minseok's adolescence is spent like this:  
  
He'll be with Lu Han, alone more often than not. They'll be sitting in a tree somewhere or in a glade and Lu Han will be looking at the sky. They talk, they talk about everything but it's strange to Minseok because whole time he's looking at Lu Han, the sycamore sprite is only looking upwards - far far away from Minseok.  
  
"What do you think's up there?" Lu Han will ask, wonder bright and sunny in his voice.  
  
And Minseok will say he doesn't know, because he doesn't. He knows what hides underground, can feel it thrumming around him with every breath he takes. The earthworms chewing their way through the earth, the badgers building their warrens, the heat of the rotting leaves and fruit as it gets broken down into more earth - Minseok sees it all even before their coming of age ceremony. But Minseok has never looked upwards, not further up that the tops of the trees anyway. Minseok has never wanted to because Minseok has everything he needs down here on the ground.  
  
Lu Han is not satisfied by that. Lu Han always needs more.  
  
"Why can't I have the sky and the forest?" He'll say and the older sprites will tut and shake their heads because at this age it's cute rather than obnoxious and worrying. They think he'll grow out of it at this point, that it's just Lu Han's childish curiosity and once he grows up and realises his place as a tree sprite he'll grow out of it.  
  
Lu Han never grows out of it. Minseok knows this because once they're alone that's all Lu Han can talk about - the distinct colours of that day's sky, the birds he's seen cross it that day. He never shuts up about it. He's just got better at hiding it from everyone else.  
  
Minseok's actually sure that if Lu Han weren't with Minseok all the time he wouldn't know either and that makes Minseok feel very pleased. He likes knowing things about Lu Han that no one else does. He loves that even the other sprites will turn to him to find Lu Han when they can't.  
  
He should just tell them where Lu Han goes because almost ten times out of ten Lu Han goes to the same place, but he likes that it's a secret between them. Lu Han trusted him enough to tell him where he goes and Minseok is not about to break that trust. Even more so because he knows that the other sprites would not approve of Lu Han's sanctuary and telling would land Lu Han in even more trouble.  
  
However much Minseok hates the Elder tree and its glade he wouldn't take away the only place Lu Han feels like he can get away from all the people that don't understand him. Minseok doesn't pretend to understand Lu Han's obsession with the sky either but he at least respects it, which is more than everybody else does. Lu Han appreciates that, Minseok knows. It gets tiring dealing with the constant quips from Baekhyun and the others and Minseok has always wanted to be Lu Han's sanctuary.  
  
  
  
  
A couple of years later it's time for Lu Han and Minseok to go through their coming-of-age ceremony. It's now that they'll really come into their abilities and Minseok is so excited. He's always been more in touch with the plants and earth than Lu Han, but to be honest he's always thought that was always more to do with lack of interest on Lu Han's part than the strength of his own powers. After tonight though, Minseok will be truly connected to the earth. He can't wait.  
  
He feels like Lu Han for the week coming up to it. He can't shut up about it. He can tell Lu Han is less enthused about the whole process but he can't stop. He has always felt like he was part of the earth and now it was finally time for the earth to be a part of Minseok too, for them to be truly connected, and the excitement has him babbling and restless.  
  
That night they dance under the Beltane moon, the flower wreathes Yixing had made them twined into their hair, and Minsoek can't remember being happier in his life. The light of the moon fills the main glade. The air is filled with the beautiful voices of the three poplar sprites, Jongdae, Baekhyun and Kyungsoo, and Minseok joins hands with his friends and spins until he's giddy and dizzy.  
  
It's only some hours later when he realises that he can't see Lu Han. He had been there earlier in the night but now he can't find him. Minseok frowns. He makes an excuse to Joonmyeon and then heads off to where he knows Lu Han will be.  
  
The night air is cool against his skin. Minseok can feel the grass under his feet sway and grow. He can feel the leaves rustling in the night breeze as he walks by and the water being drawn up the trunks of the trees. It's amazing. He can't contain his wonder at the world that has been opened up to him.  
  
As expected he finds Lu Han in the Elder tree's glade, backed up against its trunk and gently stroking its bark. Minseok smiles and goes to sit beside him.  
  
"Hey." He says. Lu Han smiles weakly back. Minseok gently bumps his shoulder against Lu Han's. "You okay?"  
  
Lu Han shrugs. "I just... I thought I'd feel different." He admits quietly.  
  
For the first time in weeks Minseok feels his mood drop. He'd been so excited about the whole thing that he'd never once stopped to think about how Lu Han must feel. He's always felt more in tune with the sky than the earth and maybe he had been hoping that this night would change that.  
  
"I'm sorry." Minseok laces his fingers with Lu Han's.  
  
"What for?" Lu Han taps out a staccato rhythm on the back of Minseok's hand with his fingers.  
  
"I've been so excited about the whole thing that I wasn't thinking about anyone else. Forgive me?"  
  
Lu Han laughs. "There's nothing to forgive, Minnie. You put up with me going on about the sky all the time even though it's not your thing, I think I can survive one week of your babbling about tree roots and xylem and god knows what else."  
  
"You were listening!" Minseok says.  
  
"Well you were talking about it so much I think at least _something_ had to sink in." Lu Han says cheekily.  
  
"That's my line you theif!" Minseok punches Lu Han on the shoulder playfully with his free hand but he's smiling as he does so. Lu Han also looks a lot happier than he did when Minseok first found him so Minseok counts that as a win.  
  
"Seriously though," Lu Han says, still smiling. "It was cute seeing you so excited about something. Your little hamster cheeks go all red and puffy. It's adorable."  
  
Minseok groans. "Shut up about my cheeks already. I know they're huge, alright."  
  
"I like them."  
  
Minseok punches Lu Han again and whines, "shut up."  
  
"What's it like?" Lu Han asks suddenly. "Feeling one with the earth, what's it like?"  
  
"It's amazing." Minseok replies slowly. "I can feel everything. The moving of the branches in the wind, the grass growing. I can feel it all." He smiles tightly. "It's a bit overwhelming if I think about it too much, honestly."  
  
Lu Han nods. "I see."  
  
"Are you sad you can't feel it?" Minseok dreads the answer, but feels he has to ask. He feels Lu Han needs to talk about this, and what are best friends for if not to talk about uncomfortable things and feelings?  
  
He feels more than sees Lu Han shrug.  
  
"I think I just wanted to be normal for once." Lu Han says. "Was that so wrong?"  
  
They lapse into silence, Minseok not quite sure what to respond to Lu Han's frank honesty. Finally he settles for a confession of his own. Minseok presses his lips to Lu Han's forehead. "You know I'll always be here for you, right? Powers or no powers, you're still my best friend."  
  
Lu Han's smile at that is blinding. "I know." He squeezes Minseok's hand in his in gratitude.  
  
After that the conversation moves on to more inane subjects - how ridiculous Chanyeol and Jondgae had looked dancing, how grumpy Kyungsoo had looked in his flower crown. They even talk a little about the night sky overhead. From the Elder tree's glade the stars are bright and clear to see in the sky and Lu Han's eyes twinkle with reflected starlight. Minseok thinks he has never looked so beautiful.  
  
They fall asleep in the hollow at the base of the Elder tree, hands intertwined still and leant up against each other. Minseok couldn't have imagined a more perfect ending to the happiest night of his life.  
  
  
  
  
It's a few weeks after that that everything starts going to pot. Minseok has never been afraid for Lu Han before, but he's starting to. Lu Han is becoming increasingly distracted. He zones out when he's talking, even when he's talking about the sky which he usually waxes on for hours about without even stopping for breath. Minseok has also spotted him watching birds more which is strange. He's never been interested in them before.  
  
In addition to that occasionally he'll see Lu Han pulling on branches as they walk. With his new powers he'll feel the strain Lu Han puts on them and realises that Lu Han is looking for something in particular. He's looking for a certain type of branch. Same thickness, a slight bend. Minseok doesn't understand what Lu Han could need wood for - they aren't like the humans who need to burn it for warmth. Sprites don't need furniture or transportation either so there's no logical reason why Lu Han would need this kind of wood. _Maybe he just likes the way it springs back_ Minseok tells himself. The words sound hollow even to his own ears.  
  
Even more strange, sometimes Lu Han has been begging off early from spending time with Minseok to go see Tao over at the bee hives. It's not that Lu Han and Tao aren't friends as such, they are. What's weird is that no one ever goes over to the bee hives unprompted because they are full of bees, angry bees which do not like to be disturbed unless you're some kind of bee-whisperer like Tao. Or Lu Han, apparently.  
  
He brings it up with Lu Han, concerned, but Lu Han brushes him off with a smile and a laugh as he always does and Minseok thinks no more of it. He trusts Lu Han. He's Lu Han's best friend. He's sure he would tell Minseok if something were wrong.  
  
...right?  
  
  
  
  
Three days later Minseok is awakened to the sound of birds screaming and the stench of blood, heavy and metallic. It fills the air so thick it's like a miasma. Minseok almost chokes.  
  
"Lu?" He calls fearfully. "Lu Han?"  
  
Terrified he leaps through the trees, hopping from one branch to another in a blur. He doesn't know where he's going, just blindly following the cries.  
  
His nose leads him to a glade on the outskirts of the forest. It's wide and ope, just the kind of place Lu Han loves to frequent. The smell of copper is so thick here that it pervades Minseok's nostrils and sits heavy on his tongue and he gags. His heart fills with fear.  
  
He creeps closer. There's a creature in the middle of the glade, a dark shadow. It's crouched over. Its back is hunched over, twisted and in its claw-like hands it grasps the twitching body of a wood pigeon. As Minseok stands, frozen in horror, it rips a handful of feathers from the bird's wing. They spray into the air, startling Minseok.  
  
Involuntarily he gasps. The creature whirls round, hissing, and Minseok is confronted with its face.  
  
_It's Lu Han. Its face is twisted into an inhuman snarl, but it's still Lu Han's face._  
  
"Lu Han!" Minseok shouts, horrified. "What are you doing?"  
  
Instantly Lu Han's face relaxes and he no longer looks like a savage beast.  
  
"Minnie?" Lu Han asks. He looks like lost child.  
  
"Put the bird down, Lu." Minseok edges closer, hand outstretched.  
  
Lu Han looks down at his hands as if he hadn't even realised that he was holding anything. He stares. And stares.  
  
"I can't." He says finally. He shakes as he speaks. "I can't."  
  
"You can." Minseok coaxes, crouching down to the creature's level as he speaks. "Please give me the bird."  
  
"You want to take it from me." Lu Han accuses blankly.  
  
"No, nononono." Minseok soothes. "I don't. "  
  
Lu Han turns his furious eyes on Minseok. "You're lying!" He rages. "You've always been jealous of it. Always wanted to keep me from it."  
  
It's then that Minseok realises Lu Han is not talking about the bird at all.  
  
"The sky?" Minseok breathes. "How could I keep you from the sky?"  
  
"You've never liked it." Lu han accuses him. "You've never liked the tree. You want to keep me away from the things I love and all to yourself and _I won't let you!_ " Lu Han shrieks.  
  
Then he lunges, clawed hands outstretched and the only thing that saves Minseok is his instinct. He doesn't even realise he's done it, but the blades of grass under their feet grow and stretch, winding round Lu Han's struggling limbs and pulling him down towards the ground.  
  
Minseok feels tears prick at his eyes he watches Lu Han thrash and scream and curse against his bonds, knowing that he can't let him go.  
  
He cries because he knows how much Lu Han hates being confined. He cries because he knows how much he's hurting the person he claims to love most in this world. But most of all he cries because in the wretched, raging creature he sees bound before him he sees nothing of that person at all.  
  
  
  
  
Jongin and Sehun are dandelion sprites, prone to wandering and curious as newborn pups. Before they used to joke that Lu Han should have been born as one of them, so much did he like to explore. They haven't made that joke in a while.  
  
That's how and why they find Minseok hours later, the two of them attracted to the glade by the stench of copper and sap.The first thing they see is Minseok curled into a ball on his side next to the remnants of Lu Han's cage. The tears have long since dried up on Minsoek's part, painted onto his cheeks but Lu Han's malice seems to be have been endless. The strands of grass that had imprisoned him have been decimated, large gashes in them like they have been slashed with a wolf's claws. The bird that was in his hands has long been reduced to nothing more than shreds of meat. It lies scattered about the glade, resting in piles of bloody feathers.  
  
Shaken, it takes them a couple of minutes before they remember to move. Gingerly they step through the devastation to their friend. Jongin reaches out a hand to touch, terrified that Minseok might be dead.  
  
Minseok wakes with a start and sits up, panting in fear. He looks around the glade desperately, searching for something he just can't find.  
  
"Hyung!" Sehun cries. "Thank goodness you're alright!"  
  
"What happened?" Jongin asks fearfully.  
  
Minseok flinches, the memory of Lu Han lunging for him, eyes wild and manic, flashing across his eyes.  
  
"It's nothing." Minseok mutters.  
  
Jongin and Sehun share a look. It does not go unnoticed.  
  
"It was nothing, just a wolf." Minseok maintains, tone firm. "It ran off, I'm fine and there's nothing more to it."  
  
He should tell them it was Lu Han. He should go to the older sprites and tell them everything because Lu Han is dangerous and on the loose. (Though Minseok is still here, isn't he? He doesn't remember Lu Han leaving and that means Lu Han must have left him alone. He had the perfect opportunity to kill Minseok if he had wanted to do so but he didn't. That has to count for something right?)  
  
Neither of them look like they believe the lies he's feeding them but they don't seem inclined to push it either. Probably happy to leave up to the others when they get back to the central glade but even so Minseok is glad of the reprieve.  
  
"Hyung." Jongin presses gently. "Let us take you home."  
  
Minseok nods tiredly. Jongin gathers his little hyung up in his arms and holds him close. He can feel Minseok's heart beating fast even now and he shares a worried look with Sehun over Minseok's head. Whatever happened to him, it had obviously scared him far more than he'd like to admit.  
  
  
  
  
Minseok maintains his silence to the other spirits. It's clear nobody believes a word that comes out of his mouth, but Minseok doesn't care. They won't know the truth unless it comes from his lips so Lu Han is safe. For now.  
  
He doesn't really know why he's protecting a man who tried to kill him. Perhaps it's the shred of hope that Lu Han is still in there somewhere.  
  
  
  
  
After that incident Lu Han disappears completely. Sometimes Minseok can smell blood on the air and will follow it, desperate to find his lost friend, but Lu Han has become a phantom. There's no trace of him anywhere. In his desperation Minseok had even camped out by the Elder tree's glade hoping to catch a glimpse of him but to no avail. It's as if Lu Han has disappeared off the face of the earth.  
  
With each day that passes Minseok's feelings of trepidation and helplessness increases but there's nothing he can do except keep searching and hope that soon Lu Han will decided to show himself again.  
  
  
  
  
Minseok drifts in and out of an uneasy and tormented sleep. He hasn't been sleeping well anyway with Lu Han missing but this night has been the worst so far. He wakes up just before the dawn with a cold sweat running down his back and a sense of foreboding in his chest.  
  
He doesn't know how he knows, but somehow he can feel the same wrongness he felt on the night he found Lu Han with the birds and he just knows that something terrible, truly terrible, is going to happen.  
  
"Lu Han." He whispers, mind racing. There's no blood to lead him to Lu Han this time. He has to rely of how well he knows his lover. Where would Lu Han be?  
  
_The Elder tree. That's where Lu Han will be._  
  
He races to the glade, heart in his mouth. What if he's wrong? What if Lu Han isn't there after all?  
  
When he arrives in the glade, out of breath and sweaty, his fears are both appeased and realise because Lu Han is indeed there, standing on the edge of one of the highest branches in the tree with his arms outstretched wide. From the ground all Minseok can see are the blurry shape of what seem to be wings attached to them.  
  
Minseok's eyes widen in horror and it feels like his heart is has turned to stone in his chest. Lu Han is going to jump.  
  
"Don't do it!" He shouts into the air. "Don't jump!"  
  
Lu Han doesn't show any sign of having heard him. Slowly, inexorably, he stretches out his makeshift wings and tilts his head back towards the sky. Minseok watches, frozen, as Lu Han's knees bend, his muscles coiling in preparation. All his words get caught in his throat as he watches the figure outlined against the dawn sky.  
  
_Don't jump. Please, Lu, don’t do this, you don't have to do this. Come back to me. Just **don't jump.**_ He begs silently.  
  
Lu Han jumps.  
  
Minseok watches in horror as the wind rips straight through the matted feathers stuck to Lu Han's twig-wings. Lu Han doesn't seem to notice. His eyes are shut and the expression on his face is pure bliss.  
  
In desperation Minseok calls on the plants around the glade to cushion Lu Han's fall, but they refuse to listen, too terrified of encroaching on the elder tree's glade to obey. Despair courses through him. There must be something. There must be.  
  
The solution comes to him in a flash of brilliance but it brings with it dread. There's only one option open to him. Minseok is really not sure he's strong enough to take it because if he chooses this there is very little chance Minseok will be able to come out the other side unchanged. The only way left is Elder tree itself.  
  
Minseok will admit it. He's scared. He doesn't know what will it will do to him if he tries to use it. He's seen the effect it had on Lu Han, effect it has on the plants in the glade and he's not sure he can do it. He shakes his head angrily. No, he has to do it. For Lu Han.  
  
Minseok steels himself and pushes his magic into the Elder tree. It resists fiercely. The pain that shoots through his head is sharp and malevolent, but Minseok refuses to give in because Lu Han is there and Lu Han is falling and _he needs to get to him_. He pushes himself bodily into the trunk - first his arms, then his torso and finally the rest of him.  
  
It hurts. Everything hurts.  
  
Memories flash through his mind. Lu Han at their first winter playing delightedly in the snow. The autumn Sehun broke his hand and everyone babied him until spring.  
  
The forest blazing around him as he stands safe in his glade, a jump too far away from the ravenous flames.  
  
He forces his way up the trunk, bombarded with memories as he does so. Some of them are Minsoek's and some aren't but it doesn't make Minseok stop. He can't stop. Even through the haze of flashing memories his mind is focused on Lu Han. _LuHanLuHanLuHan_ like a drone.  
  
It feels like parts of himself are peeling away the higher he gets, stripped away by the Elder tree and its malice but he presses on. Outside the trunk he can see Lu Han still falling - eyes shut and face contorted in bliss - as if in slow motion. The wind ruffles through the dirty, bloodstained feathers like a whisper. It makes them almost dance.  
  
All the traces of madness have disappeared in that instant. The sun streams round Lu Han's face like halo and Minseok is struck by how beautiful he looks in the light. Angelic. It's a far cry from the darkness that has consumed him in recent weeks.  
  
They're getting close now. He sees Lu Han's eyes crack open and the realisation flickers across his face that he is not flying, he is falling back to the ground he so abhors. Lu Han tries flapping his wings but all it achieves is ripping more feathers from them and he falls ever quicker. Minseok knows he has to act quickly.  
  
It's an odd feeling to coil your muscles without actually having any, but Minseok does it all the same. He readies himself. He braces himself against the Elder trees resistance and jumps, arm outstretched. He bursts through the bark like a salmon jumping up stream, desperately trying to reach out to Lu Han.  
  
He can feel the bark start to crawl up his legs and risks a panicked look back. The brown coils round his ankles, creeping up his legs insidious and cold.  
  
"Lu Han!" He calls desperately upwards. "Take the wings off! Take them off so I can catch you!"  
  
For a brief second Lu Han looks torn and Minseok feels a frisson if fear spike in his gut that Lu Han is too far gone, that he can't see reason even as he watches the ground rush up to meet him. Then Lu Han's ripping the wings off and reaching out both arms to Minseok. Tears prickle at the corners of Minseok's eyes with relief. His Lu Han is still in there somewhere.  
  
The bark is at his waist now, crawling up his back and up to his shoulders. Minseok grits his teeth. _A little longer. A little longer is all he needs._ He stretches his arms out further. Lu Han is looking directly at him, his face a painted mask of fear, and Minseok has the strangest feeling like Lu Han is looking at him properly for the first time. That this is the first time that Lu Han is actually _seeing_ him. Seeing him as more than a friend, seeing him in the way that Minseok has longed for for so long. He wants to laugh and he wants to scream. Of course it would be now, seconds away from death, that Lu Han opens his eyes.  
With his last ounce of strength Minseok stretches further and catches Lu Han in his arms. He pulls him in just as his arms seize up. Tears stream freely down his face because _he's got him, he's saved him_.  
Then the bark rushes into Minseok's mouth and eyes and if it weren't pouring down his throat he would have screamed at the pain. The last thing he sees is Lu Han, resting safe in his outstretched arms and Minseok thinks _I'm happy I got to do something for you. I love you._  
Then he knows no more.  
  
  
  
  
Lu Han perches in Minseok's wooden arms. He hadn't quite had time to pull Lu Han all the way to his chest so he rests in between the crooks of Minseok's elbows like a rag doll, bark cutting into the backs of Lu Han's knees and his spine.  
  
"Minseok?" Lu Han's voice trembles. He hasn't seen Minseok yet, but he knows something's terribly wrong.  
  
Minseok doesn't answer.  
  
Fear coiling hot in his belly Lu Han shifts in his perch. Minseok's eyes stare back at him, no longer warm and lovely like in life but cool and dead, covered by bark, just like the rest of Lu Han's best friend.  
  
"No." Lu Han whispers to himself, tears rolling down his face. "No, this can't be happening. This isn't real."  
  
He cradles Minseok's head in his arms, crying more at feeling rough bark under his fingers where there used to be soft, smooth skin. He tries to rock back and forward in his anguish but Minseok's body is rigid and unmoving.  
  
"Nonono," He wails. "Minnie, why would you do this for me? I don't deserve this. I don't deserve this. Why? You're so stupid. Come back so I can yell at you for how stupid you are, you idiot."  
  
The Elder tree is silent. Lu Han can feel the satisfaction rolling off it in waves and he's filled with dread. This is all his fault. He should have listened to the other sprites, to Minseok, when they had told him there was something terribly wrong with this tree.  
  
Once again he feels that rage filling up inside him but this time it is not hot and raging, out of control and spurred on by the Elder tree's malevolence, but cool and hard and deadly.  
  
"You think I can't touch you because Minseok is part of you but you're wrong. I'll find a way." Lu Han hisses through his tears. "You've seen what I'm like when I want something, what I'm willing to do and now all of that energy and all of that _hate_ is directly aimed at **you**."  
  
"I will burn every trace of your genus from this forest." He spits in fury. "I will make it so no one ever even knows of your existence. Your children will go before you and then, after you have heard their screams of anguish and suffering, I will come for you and I will take all the pain that I feel, and that your seedlings will have felt, and I will return it to you tenfold. Hundredfold. _I will not make it quick._ "  
  
The Elder tree's leaves quiver in the breeze as if in fear. Lu Han laughs. It's manic and high pitched. A group of ravens takes off in one of the neighbouring trees, startled by the sound, and it startles Lu Han into sobriety. His eyes fix on Minseok once again and mournfully he reaches out a hand to brush a finger what used to be Minseok's lips. He closes his eyes. If he doesn't look he can almost pretend that they are merely chapped. Lu Han leans forward and presses a kiss to Minseok's lifeless lips. "Thank you, Minnie. I'll see you soon."  
  
He smiles to himself as he delivers his final promise. "You created me, tree. You bred malice and insanity in me. For what purpose I don't know - boredom? amusement? - but now you shall reap what you have sown. I hope you know this, oldest and wisest of trees:  
  
**You have made your own doom.** "  
  
---  
  
  


  


**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the sncj reverse big bang and I was very lucky to get the chance to write for artwork #13.


End file.
